Tuesday, January 7, 2014

As we wish each other a
happy and prosperous new year, more comes to light about the
government’s single-minded and untiring attempts at total
surveillance of everybody.

Jacob Applebaum, a
computer expert associated with Edward Snowden, spoke to a hackers
conference in Germany about already existing different new
surveillance devices, or devices being developed by the National
Security Agency.

One of these allows
government spies to transform your iPhone into a microphone through
which big Brother can listen to your phone calls. In his speech,
Applebaum wondered aloud whether that device was developed and
inserted with the cooperation of Apple. That company has since then
denied in a press release that they were in anyway cooperating with
the government to make their phones into surveillance tools.

Applebaum also talked
about ways in which a properly prepared computer can share every
keystroke a user makes with a spy, even if the computer is at that
moment not connected to the Internet. While you are manually typing
away on an email to an old friend, the message you are composing
shows up on the spy agency’s computer.

Another device, either
in use or in development, allows someone to read messages posted on a
computer from as far as 8 miles away. The snoops do not have to hide
in a tree outside your house. They can be quite comfortable and warm
while they capture what you are writing on your machine.

Applebaum also stressed
that what is at issue here is not just individual privacy. These
growing surveillance capabilities threaten the life and safety itself
of journalists or of completely innocent bystanders. Applebaum told
the story of an Angolan journalist whose computer had clearly been
tampered with and was uploading its content to another computer. That
other computer, unfortunately, was a government machine. A short time
later the Angolan investigative journalist was arrested and is now
under indictment and faces many years in prison, torture, and
possible execution.

The aim of all the
surveillance is not just to give spies a chuckle when they read your
emails. The aim is political control, and enforcing conformity to
views approved of by the government. Mind control is the ultimate
purpose. The real threat of all this surveillance is enforcement of
political conformity.

Make a resolution for
2014 to defend our traditional freedoms in every way you can.